


Home Away From Home

by Corinna



Category: Smallville
Genre: Aliens, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Watchtower - Freeform, justice league - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-19
Updated: 2005-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-07 16:30:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/750614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corinna/pseuds/Corinna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A watchtower? For the Justice League?</p><p>Written for the Worst Case Scenario Challenge, for the prompt, "How to Survive a UFO Abduction."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Away From Home

“Put this on,” Superman commanded as he touched down. A white space suit with a tacky NASA logo dropped onto Lex’s desk.

Lex frowned. “I’m a little busy right now. It may have escaped the Justice League that there is an unidentified flying object in orbit around Earth, but Lexcorp —”

“First of all, it’s cloaked, so I don’t even know how you spotted it.” Lex started to protest, but Superman raised his hand impatiently. “Quite frankly, I don’t want to know. Not right now. Second, do you think I brought you a spacesuit for some sort of role-play? Don’t answer that one either.”

Lex smirked. “So, we’re moving on to costumes now? I have a great little French maid outfit from my misspent youth. I’d have to have it taken out quite a bit for you, of course, but...” 

“Lex. Let’s go.” 

Lex had to admit that he had a little bit of a kink for shocking Clark while he was wearing the Superman suit. It almost made up for the bulky uncomfortableness of the spacesuit, and the humiliation of getting wrapped up in that ridiculous red cape for the journey up to the satellite. 

Lex couldn’t see how they got into the UFO, but once Superman gave him the all-clear, he pulled off the helmet and drank the whole scene in. They were in some sort of staging area; above them, a glassed-in booth was obviously a control center. The space they were standing in was cavernous, with windows facing out to the stars on two different levels, and corridors on both sides led out to more spaces he could not see. Everything was metallic, matte black and gunmetal grays, and there was no sign of anyone else but themselves. 

“What do you think?” Superman called from about thirty feet up. 

“What do I think?” Lex motioned for him to come down, and when he landed, Lex grabbed the front of his suit menacingly. “I think,” he whispered, “that we are on a UFO, and you are being awfully cavalier about it, even for frequent space traveler. Don’t shout! The people who built this thing could be back at any minute!” 

“God, I hope not. Look, you wanted to see what was up here, and I’m showing it to you. It’s nothing dangerous, so could you call off your dogs?” 

Lex shook his head. “The trouble with you is that you always want to believe the best of everyone. What makes you so sure the intentions of the aliens in control of this thing are benign?”

“Because I’m one of those aliens!” Superman looked flustered. “I had this whole plan for how I was going to tell you about this place, but you had to get all paranoid and weird about it.”

It was the use of the word “alien” that did it: after all of the awards and tributes and trophies that Superman had received, there was still Clark, the farmer’s son who hadn’t wanted to believe he really was that different from everybody he loved. Lex let go of the anger and anxiety that had fueled him since the minute he’d gotten the report about the UFO, and tried to smile. “Well, then,” he said, starting to unzip the spacesuit’s many layers. “Why don’t you satisfy my curiosity?”

Superman smiled, and helped him out of the suit. “It’s a watchtower for the Justice League. Batman built it; I don’t know what kind of cloaking technology WayneTech is using, but he explained it to the Atom. The whole idea is to have a place we can meet up and coordinate in; putting it in orbit means there’s no one city that becomes a target for our enemies, and helps us defend the whole planet when we need to.”

“Seems reasonable.” Superman lead him out of the staging area into the hallway on the left. Recessed lighting in the walls and the ceiling came on at the touch of a small metal plate, and signs full of airport-like symbols pointed directions through rows of branching corridors. “But why the secrecy? Not even NASA knows what you’re up to: believe me, I checked.”

“A lot of people felt — and I couldn’t really argue with them — that the Earth’s governments, and the US in particular, were going to freak out at the idea of us having the satellite up here no matter what, so better to just tell them we’d already done it than to get into the mess of asking permissions. When we’re fully operational, we’ll decloak and announce it. Lex, there are no weapons on board, we don’t pose a threat to anyone.”

Superpowered beings with an invisible perch in space could seem like a threat to even the most law-abiding nation, Lex thought, but that was a conversation to have another day. For now, he was willing just to walk the new watchtower’s corridors, learning the low hum it made.

“…and it’ll make things easier for us, as well,” Superman was saying. “It’s a real challenge right now making sure there are enough people on alert in enough places at any given time, and helping people get to know each other well enough that we can all work as a team. This place is going to be great for that. And, easier overnights.”

“Overnights?” Lex wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that.

“Yeah. Last time we fought the Black Mask, I ended up spending an entire night on a Gotham gargoyle, waiting for him to make his move. Not as comfortable as you might think.” They turned down a secondary corridor, and Superman stopped in front of one of a row of identical matte black doors. “Here we are,” he said. 

The doors slid open, and they walked inside. Lex caught his breath. It was like walking off the satellite and into Clark’s Smallville bedroom. There was a worn blue and red quilt on the bed, and a braided rag rug on the floor. The walls had been painted a rich shade of blue, broken only by an oval mirror and a Metropolis Sharks banner. 

“Do you like it?”

Lex had a sleeper couch in his office for those rare occasions when LexCorp’s needs were so overwhelming that it was easier to stay, and a plain shower stall in his office bathroom to clean up after workouts or before particularly extravagant dinners. This was a whole magnitude of order more personal: a true home away from home. “It’s very… it’s very nice,” he managed. He wondered how many more nights he’d be spending alone now that Clark had a more comfortable alternative than the gargoyles of Gotham or the ice flats of the Fortress. “Very nice.”

Clark shrugged. “I just took some stuff Mom said she didn’t need from the basement. I was hoping maybe there was some stuff you didn’t need too.”

“Like what?”

“Like, I don’t know, a set of candlesticks or something. Nothing too personal: I don’t need to go shouting my secret identity to anyone who walks in the door. ”

“Clark, look, it’s fine with me if you want a room that’s just your things.”

Clark shook his head. “It wouldn’t really be mine if it wasn’t even a little ours.”

Life had schooled Lex from early on for disappointment and rejection. It was Clark who had taught him that there were some things still worth hoping for anyhow. By now his sweetness should not have come as a surprise, but it always left Lex a little breathless. “Oh,” he said. “Sure. Anything.”

Clark smiled again, and ran his index finger along the line of Lex’s jaw. “And as long as you’re here,” he said, “you want to help me break in the bed?”


End file.
